The qualitative interview in psychology and the study of social change: Sexual identity development, minority stress, and health in the generations study.

Abstract

Interviewing is considered a key form of qualitative inquiry in psychology that yields rich data on lived experience and meaning making of life events. Interviews that contain multiple components informed by specific epistemologies have the potential to provide particularly nuanced perspectives on psychological experience. We offer a methodological model for a multicomponent interview that draws upon both pragmatic and constructivist epistemologies to examine generational differences in the experience of identity development, stress, and health among contemporary sexual minorities in the United States. Grounded in theories of life course, narrative, and intersectionality, we designed and implemented a multicomponent protocol that was administered among a diverse sample of three generations of sexual minority individuals. For each component, we describe the purpose and utility, underlying epistemology, foundational psychological approach, and procedure, and we provide illustrative data from interviewees. We discuss procedures undertaken to ensure methodological integrity in the process of data collection, illustrating the implementation of recent guidelines for qualitative inquiry in psychology. We highlight the utility of this qualitative multicomponent interview to examine the ways in which sexual minorities of distinct generations have made meaning of significant social change over the past half-century.

The Coming-Out Process in Family, Social, and Religious Contexts Among Young, Middle, and Older Italian LGBQ+ Adults

“…However, such studies have generally been based on a single age group (e.g., older adults), and have thus inferred differences without the supporting evidence of empirical comparisons of cohorts. It is likely that shifts in the historical environment impact experiences of sexual minority identity, and that other important factors may contribute to determining LGBQ+ peoples’ experiences of minority stress ( Frost et al, 2019 ). For instance, although older adults grew up in a more cis-heterosexist and cis-heteronormative social context than young adults, they had also had a greater opportunity to process life experiences and elaborate on aspects of their sexual identity, to gain resiliency ( Kimmel, 2015 ).…”

“… Meyer (2003) conceptualized the sources of stress experienced by LGBQ+ people as minority stressors , as such stressors are linked to stigmatized social categories. The impact of minority stress can vary greatly, depending on other social categories that constitute identity, such as ethnicity, religion, gender, class, and age ( Frost et al, 2019 ). Including both distal and proximal processes, minority stressors can be categorized into the following groups: (a) discrimination and/or harassment, experienced through external and objective events ( Rollè et al, 2018 ); (b) vigilance, caused by an expectation of negative events; and (c) internalized sexual stigma (ISS), consisting of the internalization of negative attitudes and beliefs toward the self due to one’s LGBQ+ identity.…”

Using Online Resources Technology for Foreign Language Learning: Strategies, Impact, and Challenges

“…Case studies are the right approach to seek a comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon [46] because it provides ways of how learners using online resources technology for language learning. The case selected is from students from foreign language departments through a qualitative interview [47].…”

Sexual Minority Educators: Life Stories of Career Identity Development

“…This phenomenological qualitative study contributed to an emerging area of study, sexual minorities' life stories and identity development. Research methods were selected based upon an appreciation of which would produce the data that best addressed the research question(s) (Frost, Hammack, Wilson, Russell, Lightfoot, & Meyer, 2019). Authors of this study explored the retrospective career identity development experiences of sexual minority educators to provide in depth understandings of specific phenomena or processes.…”